0.75 Hour CLE; 0.75 Hour Legal Specialization Appellate Law

Self-study offered!

Speakers: Helen Zukin, Gonzalo C. Martinez, and Julia C. Kelety

Moderators: Katelyn Leeviraphan and Josh Patashnik

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Helen Zukin

Associate Justice Helen Zukin was appointed by Governor Gavin Newsom to the Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District, Division Four, on May 19, 2023. Justice Zukin was unanimously confirmed by the Commission on Judicial Appointments after receiving an “exceptionally well qualified” rating from the Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation.

In 2018, Justice Zukin was appointed to the Los Angeles Superior Court by Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr., where she served for five years. Justice Zukin presided over family law, general jurisdiction civil trials, and an unlimited independent civil calendar court. She also served as the West District Site Judge for the Beverly Hills Courthouse.

At the Los Angeles Superior Court, she worked to establish the court’s Judicial Mentor Program and was involved in the development of the California Judicial Mentor Program. Also at the Los Angeles Superior Court, she served as an active member of the Diversity & Inclusion, Access and Fairness, and Community Outreach Committees, as well as the Equity and Inclusion and Civil Engagement Initiative Working Groups, and the New Judicial Officers Judicial Education Seminar Subcommittee. She has lectured on a broad range of legal subjects to judges, attorneys, and law students.

Gonzalo C. Martinez

Justice Martinez is the Presiding Justice of the Second District Court of Appeal, Division Seven. 

He served as an Associate Justice in Division Seven from 2023 until his confirmation as Presiding Justice in 2024 by the Commission on Judicial Appointments.

Justice Martinez previously served in the Governor’s Office as deputy judicial appointments secretary and also worked in legal affairs. Martinez advised on the appointment of almost 400 judges across California and frequently spoke on judicial appointments throughout the State.

He served as a deputy solicitor general in the Office of the Solicitor General in the California Attorney General’s Office. He represented the State in significant civil and criminal matters in state and federal courts, including the United States Supreme Court and the California Supreme Court. 

Justice Martinez was previously in private practice. He was a partner in the Appellate and Supreme Court Practice Group at Squire Patton Boggs (U.S.) LLP, practicing before appellate and trial courts nationwide. He also worked at Coblentz Patch Duffy & Bass LLP and Morrison & Foerster. As an attorney, he was certified as a specialist in Appellate Law by the State Bar of California.

Julia C. Kelety

Justice Julia Kelety was nominated for appointment to the Court of Appeal, Fourth Appellate District, Division One by Governor Gavin Newsom on January 27, 2023. She was unanimously confirmed by the Commission on Judicial Appointments and took the oath of office on April 7, 2023.  Before appointment to the Court of Appeal, for over nineteen years, Justice Kelety served as a judge of the San Diego Superior Court, where she presided over probate and juvenile dependency matters.  For three years, she served as Presiding Judge of the Superior Court’s Appellate Division.

Justice Kelety grew up in Tempe, Arizona. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Arizona in 1982.  In 1985, she graduated from Cornell Law School, where she served as Articles Editor for the Cornell Law Review.  She clerked for the Honorable Mary M. Schroeder of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and then joined the litigation department of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher as an Associate Attorney in the firm’s New York office from 1986 to 1990.